By Ryan Donaldson

The Wild have been nearly unbeatable at home this season, but they were unable to hang on to a 3rd period lead at Xcel Energy Center against the Ducks on Tuesday night. Now (10-3-1) at home The Colorado Avalanche tried to make it two straight losses at the X for Minnesota, but the Wild had a different plan in mind.

Torrey Mitchell swiftly found his way to a bouncing puck in front of the Avalanche net and scored first for Minnesota for an early 1-0 advantage. 

Going into Thursday night, the Wild have had 4 pucks carom into the net after circus-like bounces this season according to Color Analyst Tom Reid. However, Colorado added a 5th unfortunate goal against after a fluttering puck floated over an outstretched Backstrom to tie the game 1-1 at the end of the first.

In the second, Matt Cullen and Devin Setoguchi continued their hot streak, and paired up for a go ahead goal to go up 2-1.  Then, Brodin continued his campaign as the Wild’s top rookie of the year when he wristed a laser of a shot into the upper right for his first career goal and a 3-1 lead. 23 seconds later Colorado scored to take the air out of Xcel Energy center until Suter, Parise, and Koivu combined for a 3 way tic-tac-toe highlight goal to go back up by 2 as the second comes to an end.

Colorado made a game of it after quickly adding a 3rd goal to cut the deficit to one. 

However, strong fore checking, sound defense, and a Koivu empty netter helped stave off the Avalanche as the Wild secured the 2 points in the standings with a big home win.  Wild are now (14-10-2) 

Head Coach Mike Yeo expects a tougher test on Saturday when the two clubs meet again at 2:00 on KFAN.  “That’s a tough team to play against, they are very skilled, they come at you, they find ways to get chances, we are going to have to be ready for a good challenge in their building (on Saturday at 2pm).”